Is 500 reputations enough to be able to "cast close & reopen votes"?

Question

I have just asked 4 questions here, and thanks to other members two of them were received very well.

Now I have surpassed 500 reputations and I have received a new privilege "Casting close & reopen votes".

But is 500 reputations enough so that this privilege is granted? I mean I am still new here and I have to be experienced more in asking good questions (one of my questions isn't received very well). In other words, how can a member who isn't experienced enough yet, know and decide which post deserves a close?

In contrast, I have a reputation of 609 in English language learners SE, but I haven't been granted this privilege yet there.

I personally think that the privilege of splitting the score should be prior to casting close votes.

Answer 1

The threshold for various privileges varies between sites, depending on the phase the site is in. Sites in the beta phase have lower reputation thresholds for various privileges. Astronomy recently left the beta phase, as English Language Learners had already done, but for various reasons, the thresholds have not been raised to the levels they are on sites that had previously left beta, which is why the ability to cast close votes only requires 500 reputation here.

You could argue that this is a bit low; on the other hand, most folks take a while to get to 500. I'd guess that the typical reputation point gain on a new user's post is around 30-40 points. Most people who gain close/reopen privileges have enough time to get acquainted with the site and its scope to properly use them. (Citation: We haven't had any major issues with that over the past 8+ years!)